[MJMS]

Happy Thursday! What a fast week! I haven't been on the scale the last couple of mornings, so I am not sure where I am, I am pretty sure I am about the same, though. That's good enough for now with everything going on. I am trying to keep to mostly SB principles, watch my portions and not get into too much emotional eating snacking. I also need to get back to my exercise. I am sure it would help me cope with the stress better. My eye appointment went well yesterday and she was most reassuring. I do need to have a laser procedure on one eye in December and on the other eye in January. I would have preferred sooner just to have it behind me, but the doctor has a busy schedule. Hopefully, that speaks to her skill and popularity! It's in-office and should be quick and painless. Hooray for modern medicine!

Muffin, I have been thinking about you and sending good thoughts for your biopsy. I hope that you have had good news by now! Although I know that the lab workup can take a while. I am not good at waiting for things like that. And I hope that your DS2 is feeling better and that you are packing and getting ready for your college visit! How is the foot feeling? Did you get into the doctor for it yet? Any improvement? I sure hope so. You have been dealing with an awful lot lately.

Lisaward and Amma Heather! Hope your week is going well!

It's just about Halloween weekend. There have been lots of Trunk or Treat events advertised around here and I know that our town is doing Trick or Treat on Sunday evening. I miss having Trick or Treaters coming to the door! Where we used to live, we got tons of them and I loved seeing the little ones and the kids from the school that I was teaching at. It's probably good not to have the candy around, though!
Anybody else reading, please feel free to join us on the Beach. The holidays are coming and we could all use the support in this season of eating!

[Muffin]

Good evening, I feel I haven't posted in ages I got the results of the biopsy yesterday and it looks like it was good but I don't see my doctor until Wednesday. I did see my foot doctor and he told me that the only thing he can do for me is a cortisone shot until I decided to do the surgery. I decline the shots because the last one I got took 3 days for me to take away the pain and inflammation down and it only lasted for 2 days. I won't be able to have surgery probably until next Summer because I won't be able to put any weight on my foot for at least 2 months. I need to make sure both boys are out of school since DH travels for work all the time.
The trip to UF was good, DS1 loves the university but we are not too happy about the dorms. We are thinking that if he gets accepted and decides to go there we will rent an apartment outside of the university.

Food-wise I'm trying to keep it as close as possible to SBD but I'm not 100% compliant. I weigh in this morning and I was down 1lb but we are way too much today and not SBD I'm pretty sure it won't be pretty tomorrow.

[MJMS]

Hooray for your biopsy, Muffin! But that so stinks about your foot! I wish that the doctor had been able to offer you a third choice besides cortisone shots or surgery. I can certainly understand why you have to wait until your boys are home, though. I'm glad that you were able to get to your college tour. That's too bad about the dorms, though. From what I remember about dorms, they ranged from some basement ones for the freshmen with cement block walls, kind of like I imagine a prison to be like, to suites that rivaled some of the best hotels! Same thing with the food plan options. Beautiful salad bars, fresh veggie stir fries while you waited, bowls cooked to order. Some looked so good that I was ready to say heck with the kid, I'm moving in!

For my end of the month weigh-in, I am down 2.2 pounds for the month. Not stellar, but not bad either considering. I am with you right now, Muffin. Trying to make good choices and hang on through some stressful times. For big, big stress I can lose my appetite, but for the low level, kind of constant kind like I am having now, I do emotional eating. I have to keep reminding myself that extra food or treats won't fix stress and just adds other problems like weight gain and feeling not so great.

everyone! I hope you have a fantastic holiday!

[MJMS]

Happy November! I hope everyone's Halloween was fun and safe! No trick or treaters come here, so no candy around to be a temptation. I am off to the doctor's this morning for my annual visit. It should be routine and fine. Tomorrow is my husband's surgery, so I might not be around for a while. I may be caught up in the care giving for a few days.

Hope everyone is happily busy and doing well on the Beach. I am basically maintaining now, but will need to get back to it after things settle a bit here. I am still trying to make good choices, though.

Have a great start to your week and to your month. Nothing like a fresh beginning!

[Muffin]

Good evening!

MJMS- how is eye doing? I hope your husband's surgery went fine. I will be keeping you and your husband in my prayers, I hope he has a fast recovery.

[MJMS]

Thank you, Muffin! I will have an office procedure on my eye in December. The doctor assures me that it will be a breeze with a very minimal chance of any problems. Whew! My husband did really well with his surgery today. He was well taken care of and so was I by the hospital staff and he is home and doing well. Hopefully, after the anesthesia wears off fully, he will not be in much pain. So far, so good, though.

And how are you doing, Muffin? Did you hear definitively about your biopsy yet? How is the foot behaving? Any more college trips planned with your son coming up?

Diet-wise, I am treading water right now. Tomorrow, the hubby is supposed to start back walking according to the doctor, so if the weather clears up, out we will go, at least for a couple of short trips. It rained like crazy here all day today. Kind of chilly, too. Definite duck weather! We are just starting to get near peak for fall leaves. I hope the rain doesn't wash them all down before the colors come out.

Hopefully, Hump Day tomorrow is just a little hill as we slide toward the weekend!

[MJMS]

Happy Friday! How is everyone? It's been a long week, but things are progressing nicely here with the hubby. He has done amazingly well with his post surgery recuperation. Yay! Weight is still hovering around the same number. Not really losing and not really gaining. Exercise stinks as my knees have been acting up again. Sigh. It's always something! I did find a nice exercise video online from the county that includes a good warmup and then some strength training for beginners. That's on my list to try when my knees settle down again.

I borrowed a book for free on Prime Reading called the Calorie Myth: How to Eat More, Exercise Less, Lose Weight and Live Better by Jonathan Bailor. I am only part way through it, but in it as he talked about eating plans, he did mention South Beach. So far, he is advocating what sounds like might mostly be a Phase 1 plan along with using Volumetrics to fill up on healthy foods. I will need to read more to see the details and what the exercise part is all about. Right now, he has spent a lot of time talking about Set Points and how difficult they can be to change and what the research says that you can do about it. Very interesting stuff. I am hoping that it will also help me get my head back into the losing game, as I have much more to go!

Muffin, Lisaward and Amma Heather! And anyone else reading, please feel free to jump in! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[MJMS]

Sunday Hello! Daylight Savings Time here, so had to turn the clocks back an hour. Fall is much easier with grabbing an "extra" hour of sleep than spring, when we lose an hour, but it is going to be rough when it gets dark so early later! We've had frost the last few mornings around here, too. I guess we really are heading into winter. Weight is still pretty much holding. A little bit down this morning and hopefully, that trend continues.

There was an article in the Washington Post about how many fewer people are doing Peloton workouts now than in the first 3 months of the year. They were attributing it to people heading back into the office and using gyms again. They quoted someone from Planet Fitness who said that the levels of users at their gyms were back to 97% of pre-pandemic levels. I found that interesting. I wonder if some of the bump at Peloton at the beginning of the year had to do with New Year's resolutions and Peloton equipment that was a Christmas gift at the end of 2020? Interesting to think about. I don't use Peloton or belong to a gym, but I do need to get moving more!

Have a Beachy Day, everyone! And join in anytime!

[Muffin]

Good evening, These past few days have been really busy with the boys. I did hear back from my biopsy and thank God it was negative. I do have psoriasiform dermatitis and my doctor told me that it was an autoimmune disease, we also discussed my PCOS and he wants me to see an endocrinologist. For now, he wants me to be dairy, sugar, and gluten-free. He also wants me to eat low glycemic index foods to help with my PCOS which could also be flaring dermatitis.
The weather here has been a bit crazy. Friday and Saturday rained all day with very strong winds but warm and today our highest was 68F

MJMS- I'm so happy to hear that your husband is doing good. I need to see if I can borrow that book sounds very interesting.

[MJMS]

Muffin, so good to hear that your biopsy was negative! But that stinks about your dermatitis and your PCOS. Dairy, sugar and gluten-free will be challenging for you, especially doing low glycemic, too. Did he offer to refer you to a nutritionist to help plan your eating? Maybe the endocrinologist will refer or have more guidance on what to eat, for you. Kind of sounds like Phase 1 without the dairy. Does no dairy include eggs, too, or just milk and milk products? I bet he was happy with the weight that you have lost so far, though!

We are having a nice stretch of weather right now. On the cool side, but sunny. A big improvement after all that gloomy rain that we were having. Diet-wise, I am plugging away. Not perfect but I am seeing little increments drop off every few days. Too slow, but much better than a gain! And not bad for not not being strict.

Have a great day everyone and join us when you can!

[MJMS]

Salute to all veterans out there! Thank you for your service! 🙏

Thursday already? Yikes! These weeks are flying! All of the sudden it seems that Thanksgiving is coming at me fast with Christmas not far behind. Always lots to do and lots of food land mines to avoid! My weight was down a bit more and I saw a new low on the scale yesterday. I know I have been this low before, but not since at least sometime before August of 2014, which is as far back as I have had my Aria scale that records my weight. Finally, a new decade, even if it is just barely. I'll see if I can hold on to it, but my usual pattern is to drop a bit, bounce back up and then settle a little lower than it has been for a bit until the next drop when it eventually sticks.

Yesterday I had bloodwork drawn for my usual doctor stuff and I had the most unhappy phlebotomist ever. I have never really had it hurt before and this time it hurt when she put the needle in and took it out. I have a pretty good bruise there now. I hope for the sake of everyone that came after me that she started to have a better day! Then it was off to the dentist, AGAIN, trying to relieve the jaw pain. It was getting better, especially since I had a muscle relaxer a few nights to get over the hump, but then I had a really great sound night's sleep and must have been clenching my jaw hard and it came back. Grrr! I can't take the muscle relaxers until after the eye surgery in December and January, so that remedy is off the table. The dentist worked on the mouth guard some more and I hope that does the trick. It did seem more comfortable last night, but it will take a few days for the inflammation to go away again before I know if that did it. So, now it is back to ibuprofen every six hours. You were right, Muffin, this can be a long, painful process to find relief!

Muffin, how are things going with you? How are you feeling? How is the new eating plan going? You must be very busy trying to figure out what you can and can't eat and how to manage it while feeding your hubby and your boys. Sending you lots of good thoughts and willpower to work through everything. You can do it! You are tough enough to do your best to make it work!

to Lisaward and Amma Heather! Check in when you can and let us know how you are doing. And to anyone else reading, feel free to jump in and say hi. Make it a good one today, everybody! The weekend is almost here!

[Muffin]

Happy Friday!

MJMS, Congrats! I do hope the weight stays down. I'm sorry to hear about your blood work bad experience. Something similar happen to one of my boys last year, I felt so bad for him. I hope your jaw is doing a bit better today. Have you tried warm compresses that might help you lower the inflammation? Do you think you could have TMJ, my husband has it and I know clenching can make it worse but also chewing on hard things like nuts.

These few days have also been super busy and I keep forgetting to come and post. I'm trying my best to stick to my new eating plan but, I'm still not 100% there yet. So far I have lost 2lbs this week so I guess in a way it is working.

[MJMS]

Muffin, congratulations on the 2 pounds! Excellent! I knew that you would be working hard to figure out your eating plan according to the doctor's recommendations and you are. And not only that, it's paying off! Any change for the better in how you are feeling yet? Although it may be a little soon for that, I sure hope so! I hope you are super busy in a good way, although with two teenage boys and a husband that travels, I would imagine super busy pretty much describes every day.

My weight is bouncing back up a bit and I am not entirely surprised, but it is now hovering lower, which seems to be my pattern, so that's good. The dentist doesn't seem to think it is TMJ so much as it is the clenching. It has improved, but I am still waking up clenching, grrrr! I just wish I could figure out a way to stop, although I seem to be waking myself up with it more often, so maybe there is progress there if I am more aware and wake up? Yesterday I distracted myself by finally tackling my closet. It was getting to be time to switch out the winter and summer anyway. I also had some clothes from when I was still working before the pandemic that I hadn't worn since then. I was trying them on and they were all pretty much too big to wear anymore. There were even some that were too snug to wear that I moved with me anyway and they either fit with some looseness or were too big now. That was a nice NSV! I am donating them and not looking back. Progress here is slow but there is progress.

It's supposed to be rainy and dreary here today. Maybe I should tackle the linen closet? There was a book with the title something like, Does This Clutter Make Me Look Fat? published a few years ago where the premise was that clutter in your life makes it more difficult to lose weight. I know that a cluttered pantry, cupboards and refrigerator sure do, but if getting organized helps my eating then I should go for it, right? Especially since it might keep me busy enough to distract me from eating.

Have a great day, everyone! And enjoy the countdown to Turkey Day although this guy may be a little too spastic!

[Muffin]

Happy Monday, I hope everyone had a good weekend!

I had a super busy week last week, DH had to stay in Cleveland for work so it was just me with the boys. I'm really exhausted, the last few days I have been going to bed at 8:30 pm. DH is supposed to be back tomorrow and hopefully, he will stay home for the rest of the week. On Saturday we are flying to Texas to spend Thanksgiving with both of my brothers and their families. We are super excited because we are finally able to meet our new nephew. This week I have some shopping to do, pack and do lots of cleaning because I wasn't able to clean or do laundry last week.

I weigh in this morning and I'm down 2.4lbs from last week. The scale is finally moving down and I'm really happy. At the same time, I'm worried about next week and not being able to eat on plan. As far as my new eating plan, I have noticed that I'm less bloated and my legs and fingers have less inflammation. I also noticed that I didn't have any acid reflux last week. I do think it is working but I also know that it is too early to really tell.

MJMS- Our bodies fluctuate too much. Slow progress it is still progress. What matters is that we are doing something good to better ourselves and we are not giving up. Were you able to work on your linen closet? I have so much to declutter in my closets that I really don't know where to start. I keep holding on to clothes that I bought over 10 years ago when I lost a lot of weight, thinking that eventually will fit again

Have a great Monday!

[MJMS]

Congratulations, Muffin! Nice that you are down over 2 pounds, but even better that you are feeling better already! That's even more important than the scale. You have been working hard and deserve it! Hopefully, DH will be home for a bit and you can get rested up. I hope that you have a great trip to Texas. I bet that you will be able to follow your plan pretty well, even if you can't be perfect since you have had such a great start.

I am still hovering around a little lower but not as much as my lowest low. Pretty much my pattern. I could help it along with more veggies, too, I think. I know. I don't have any clothes that are much smaller except for maybe a dressy dress or two. I didn't keep them from years ago figuring that if I get down to a low enough weight that I could wear them again, I'll deserve a nice shopping trip! Retail therapy is a good thing when you are buying a smaller size. I got a few things knocked off my list this morning but still haven't tackled the linen closet. Maybe this afternoon? We'll see how the motivation is.

Have as good of a Monday as you can, everybody!